


Wish You Were Here

by MoveTowardFocus



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24320209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoveTowardFocus/pseuds/MoveTowardFocus
Summary: “Keith, why did you call me?” Lance doesn’t sound accusing, more confused and curious. Keith thinks it’s a great question.After getting home from a Blade mission, Keith calls Lance with some things he needs to say.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 73





	Wish You Were Here

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is. I have a friend in Aus rn who's bored in quarantine. This little something is what I wrote to entertain her while I was waiting for my cafeteria to open.

The Blade of Marmora had gotten back to their main base on Earth after several days away on a restoration mission on a distant planet. Keith had promptly gotten in the shower immediately after arriving, donning pajama pants and a black tee once clean. Now he sits at the little desk in his room, his feet up on the surface as he leans back in his chair. There’s a photograph of a sunset he’d taken during his down time on a mission blue tacked to the wall and he has to look away. Sunsets, he can’t enjoy those anymore.

When left to the silence like this, when everything is quiet between missions, all Keith can think about is Lance. He wonders if he’s doing okay on his farm, if he’s lonely. He wonders if Lance regrets giving up adventures in space or if he’d be happy to be back in the thick of it. Most of all, Keith wonders if Lance ever thinks about him.

They’re still in contact, though less and less every day. Keith knows it’s hard when he’s with the Blade, he’s so incredibly far away from Lance and the others that communication itself is difficult. There’s time zone differences between the bases and responsibilities to get in the way. It still kills Keith inside every time when he gets left on read. He’s done his fair share of ghosting as well, no matter how much he has to say.

Keith has a lot of regrets, but the one that haunts him is never telling Lance how he feels about him. The different lost opportunities play on repeat in Keith’s head anytime there’s an opening. Maybe if Keith had said something before Lance and Allura were together he would have had a shot. If he had just shown his interest in a coherent way he hadn’t known how to do as a teenager, if he had just let Lance know, would it be different? Keith is twenty-two now, and while he’s still just as awkward at talking about his feelings, he wants Lance to know.

Keith eyes his cell phone where it’s charging, untouched since he’d last been home. He picks it up now to find one new message from Shiro, a cat meme of all things, and nothing else. Keith finds his contacts and scrolls down until he finds Lance’s name. Keith isn’t one of those people who comes up with nicknames for their friends or puts little emojis next to the name. Everyone is just who they are, but Keith almost wants to change that because seeing _Lance_ stare up at him from the screen hurts his heart.

He hovers over the call button for a few seconds, biting his lip. What time is it there? Keith is bad at remembering. He knows he’s stalling; he doesn’t actually know what he would say. He’s not even sure he’s ever called Lance; Lance always calls him. Keith remembers what it felt like on the space whale, and what it felt like to learn Lance had died. He remembers looking at the sunset. He knows if they don’t overcome the gap between them now, they won’t recover. He’s got to start living, at some point or another.

He presses the call button and holds the phone up to his ear, ignoring how his own hand is shaking. He feels ridiculous, it’s just Lance. The phone rings for a few moments, and Keith is almost afraid his bravery will be for nothing and that the phone will go to voicemail, but then suddenly he’s there.

“Hello?” Lance sounds a little rough, like he’d been asleep, and Keith feels bad.

“Uh, hey. It’s me,” Keith feels dumb, “I just…what time is it there?”

Some shuffling sounds. “Almost seven in the morning. Is everything okay?” Lance’s concern underlines the question and Keith hates how he doesn’t know how to have basic fucking social skills.

“Yeah. Yeah, everything’s fine,” Keith swallows and eyes the sunset picture again, “Sorry about the time. I can call you back.”

“No! no, I was going to get up soon anyways,” Lance rushes out and Keith is relieved, “What’s up?”

Suddenly Keith is choked up, everything he wants to say comes rushing up to the surface all at once and it blinds him. He misses Lance like he’s never missed anybody. He settles on the basics.

“I just got back with the Blade. We’re in the Australia base for a month or so while the Blade lines up the next mission.” After Voltron, the Blade had decided it’d be best to have a home base on every continent to better help the surviving residents of Earth. It’s a good idea, but Keith is acutely aware of how far it is from home.

“Australia,” Lance whistles, “I’ve seen pictures of their spiders dude, check your shoes before you put them on.”

It’s such a stupid conversation, obviously Keith is not afraid of the spiders after all they’ve been through, but the teasing tone in Lance’s voice eases some of the loneliness that plagues Keith these days.

“I’ll have to remember that,” Keith smiles into the phone. “How are you? Still enjoying farm life?” He asks the question lightly, but he’s serious. He knows the way Lance hides from everyone how sad he can get.

There’s a pause on the other end of the line. “Yeah, I’m good. The farm is doing fine. Veronica was over yesterday and brought her friend Ashley, she was really nice. Pretty too.”

Keith’s heart sinks at the mention of the new girl’s name even though he knows he’s being ridiculous. It does stop him short though. He wants to be with Lance, but he wants even more than that for Lance to be happy. He knows he’s taking too long to answer and scrambles for a response.

“I’m glad you’re making friends.” It’s such a lame thing to say, so generic, but he doesn’t have anything else.

“Keith, why did you call me?” Lance doesn’t sound accusing, more confused and curious. Keith thinks it’s a great question.

“I just…,” He pauses for a long time, “I just miss you I guess.” It’s not exactly what he wanted to say but he finds that with this Ashley girl in the picture he can’t tell Lance how he feels. Keith is in Australia, sometimes he’s in space, and Ashley is able to be there if Lance wants when Keith cannot. There’s silence on the other end of the line. Keith almost regrets saying anything but can’t deny the relief he feels at getting at least that much off of his chest.

“I miss you too. I wish you were here.” Lance’s voice is pained, more so than Keith expected, and he feels his eyes start to water.

He blinks, trying to clear his eyes. “Yeah,” He doesn’t know what else to say. Doesn’t know what else there is to say anymore.

“You better send me a picture of you holding a koala.” It’s so sudden that it makes Keith laugh, the sadness and the loss underlying the conversation lifts a little so he can breathe.

“That would look great with my Marmora uniform.” Keith plays along because this is what he knows how to do. It’s as close to flirting as the two of them get, and Keith finds himself blinking rapidly all over again.

This time the beat of silence is comfortable. Keith listens to Lance breathe on the other side of the line.

Lance is the one to break the silence. “Well I’ll let you go. Ashley and Veronica are coming over for breakfast so I should start on that, and I’m sure you have Marmorites things to do.”

Keith almost flinches at the reminder of the new girl in Lance’s life.

He swallows the lump in his throat. “You’re right, I should probably go,” he pauses, “I’ll talk to you later?”

“Yeah, Keith, I’ll call you.” Lance is clearly smiling into the phone and it mends something in the bond between them, the asymmetry in the rhythm of it a little less pronounced.

“Okay. Bye.” It’s stilted and weird, like all of their goodbyes.

“Bye, dude.” The name tacked on at the end is so Lance it makes Keith roll his eyes.

The phone disconnects and Keith is left to stare at the screen of his phone. He plugs it back into the charger. Keith goes to brush his teeth for bed and startles when his text tone goes off. Toothbrush hanging out of his mouth he reads the message. It’s from Lance.

_Don’t forget to check for the spiders._

Mouth full of toothpaste, Keith smiles.


End file.
